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Boring Mourinho under fire

Chelsea make me loathe football, says Cruyff

JOHAN CRUYFF, the Dutch football legend who enjoyed huge success as a player and coach with Barcelona, has launched a withering attack on Chelsea and the football of their manager, Jose Mourinho, ahead of Tuesday’s second leg of their Champions League meeting with his former club. Cruyff called their style “mean”, said their performance in the first leg — a 2-1 defeat for the Premiership leaders — had “done everything to make me loathe football” and predicted a short tenancy for Mourinho if his team maintain their playing style. “His own public,” Cruyff said, “will end up bored with it.”

His intervention adds further spice to a tie that already has the potential to be fiery, after Mourinho instructed Chelsea to report to Uefa “incidents” in the tunnel at half-time during the first leg, claiming Barça coach Frank Rijkaard had approached referee Anders Frisk. Cruyff said: “At half-time (when Chelsea led 1-0),